At many security gates, and in areas where there is a high rate of pedestrian and/or vehicle traffic, traffic cones and other traffic control assets can be used to control the flow of traffic. For example, at many elementary schools during periods when students are arriving and leaving, volunteers (parents or assigned students) hold stop signs and walk back and forth across the streets to signal vehicles to stop and let children cross the street. Similarly, at construction sites, construction workers often use hand signs or stop/yield traffic signs to control traffic flow. Other examples where traffic must be controlled include vehicles that are exiting from stadium parking lots after sporting events and concerts. For all of these examples, traffic control assets such as traffic cones, stop signs, yield signs and the like often must be manually maneuvered by a user at the site to control the traffic. There are often times when this task cannot be accomplished safely, either because of the volume traffic to be controlled (whether vehicle or pedestrian), or because of the speed of the traffic (primarily in vehicular traffic management cases).
Additionally, many various tracking methods have been employed to remotely direct and control autonomous robots and vehicles. Physical rail road tracks are very reliable, as vehicles and carts run on the system tracks, but such systems are very difficult to build and require a large initial investment to construct. Such systems can also be expensive to maintain. Some robot tracking systems use optical sensors that are placed on the robots/autonomous vehicles, and the sensors track a chemical that is placed along the desired path of travel for the robot. For these systems, chemical tracks require an inordinate amount of maintenance to keep the track clean. Still other systems use video/image processing, but video/image processing is still not very reliable and these types of systems can be unnecessarily complicated.
In view of the above, one object of the present invention is to provide a remotely controlled traffic management system that can function as a robotic road guard system to provide traffic management and control tools for security forces. Another object of the present invention is to provide a remotely controlled traffic management system that does not require human intervention at the site where the traffic is being controlled. Still another object of the present invention is to provide remotely controlled traffic management systems that allow for deployment and maneuvering of traffics assets from a remote control station. Still another object of the present invention according to several embodiments is to provide a remotely controlled traffic management system that quickly deploys signal traffic assets on roads and sidewalks, in buildings at security stations and gates, conference events, schools, etc. and remotely maneuvers the assets as desired by the remote user in real-time, according to changing traffic conditions at the site. These and other advantages of the invention, as well as additional inventive features, will be apparent from the description of the invention provided herein.